Thermal conductivity and phase separation of the crust of accreting neutron stars

Details Thermal conductivity and phase separation of the crust of accreting neutron stars Thermal conductivity and phase separation of the crust of accreting neutron stars

2008-04-28

arxiv.org/abs/0804.4409v3

Phys. Rev. E 79, 026103, 2009

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8 pages, 8 figures, minor changes, PRE in press

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevE.79.026103

Recently, crust cooling times have been measured for neutron stars after extended outbursts. These observations are very sensitive to the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ of the crust and strongly suggest that $\kappa$ is large. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of the structure of the crust of an accreting neutron star using a complex composition that includes many impurities. The composition comes from simulations of rapid proton capture nucleosynthesys followed by electron captures. We find that the thermal conductivity is reduced by impurity scattering. In addition, we find phase separation. Some impurities with low atomic number $Z$ are concentrated in a subregion of the simulation volume. For our composition, the solid crust must separate into regions of different compositions. This could lead to an asymmetric star with a quadrupole deformation that radiates gravitational waves. Observations of crust cooling can constrain impurity concentrations.

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